More Video

I’m low on energy, and such energy as I can muster has to go toward finishing the article on which I’m trying to work (between naps and distractions). We can talk about why I dropped off a shelf of comfort and good health into exhausted paralysis when Margaret left Scotland another time, but for now, since I don’t really have the resources to compose a jazzy, worthwhile blog on my own, I’ll point to another clip that’s floating around the Net these days. This one concerns the Bechdel Test (named after Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and the long-running comic Dykes to Watch Out For, though the comic to which I linked above credits Liz Wallace, so maybe it should be called the Wallace-Bechdel Test).

As the presenter notes, this doesn’t even begin to address explicitly feminist issues; a movie could pass the test if two detectives’ girlfriends simply said, “Where’d this rain come from?” “I dunno, it was supposed to be sunny.” Further, since the overwhelming preponderance of Hollywood movies don’t pass even this minimalist test, a movie that takes women seriously enough to — you know — give them roles is more likely to be perceived and dismissed as a “chick flick” or as an angry feminist movie.